Jesus' Prayer for Unity
Today in church, Dan Hoard talked about unity as we read about it in John 17:20-26. This chapter contains what is known as Jesus' High Priestly prayer because it is where He prays for Himself, His disciples, and for those who will believe in Him in the future. Jesus main concern in this prayer is that the church will show unity as He & the Father show unity so that the world will know that He is real.When we look around at the church, it doesn't always look unified, but we have to remember that it "is not about me." We should think instead about how we can be led by God to reveal a truth that doesn't originate in our own desires. This is, after all, God's church. We should focus on living a life based in grace, peace, forgiveness & hope for this is what we see in God's relationship with the Son.
Dan also reminded us of St. Francis of Assisi who said, "preach the gospel; if necessary, use words." So how do we preach the gospel? We should consider that it's more than "going to church," for we are the church. We should bear witness to His word.
posted by Jewels @ 1:00 PM
2 Comments:
I never heard that quote from St. Francis before and I loved it. I'm not sure exactly what it means but I think it would speak to caring for the brokenhearted, meeting the needs in our world around us and as Dan preached this morning being unified in Christ in the church so that the world can see who Jesus is. So how can we love each other in the way that the Father loved the son? Only through the Spirit, as Jesus prayed. But what does that look like?
Preach the gospel and if necessary use words - that should be the theme of our lives - to live out the word of God. In love and in unity with one another.
John 17 is mesmerising - I read through it and I find I am wading here and there findin truth but then there are still more places to wade and find more truth. I did a post on it back in Jan 26, I spent almost the whole day working on this one chapter.
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